Photo-induced optical activity in phase-change memory materials

DOI: 10.1038/srep08770
PMID: 25740351

Authors: Konstantin B. Borisenko (University of Oxford / Research Complex at Harwell) , Janaki Shanmugam (University of Oxford) , Benjamin A. O. Williams (University of Oxford) , Paul Ewart (University of Oxford) , Behrad Gholipour (University of Southampton) , Daniel W. Hewak (University of Southampton) , Rohanah Hussain (Diamond Light Source) , Tamas Javorfi (Diamond Light Source) , Giuliano Siligardi (Diamond Light Source) , Angus Kirkland (University of Oxford)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Scientific Reports , VOL 5 , PAGES 26

State: Published (Approved)
Published: March 2015
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 7201 , 8000 , 8674 , 9375

Abstract: We demonstrate that optical activity in amorphous isotropic thin films of pure Ge2Sb2Te5 and N-doped Ge2Sb2Te5N phase-change memory materials can be induced using rapid photo crystallisation with circularly polarised laser light. The new anisotropic phase transition has been confirmed by circular dichroism measurements. This opens up the possibility of controlled induction of optical activity at the nanosecond time scale for exploitation in a new generation of high-density optical memory, fast chiroptical switches and chiral metamaterials.

Subject Areas: Materials, Physics, Technique Development


Instruments: B23-Circular Dichroism

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